Halfblood Holidays
by prplemyth
Summary: Happy December, all! A collection of holiday ficlets from the world of our favorite halfbloods. An assortment of ratings, couples, and themes will be present.
1. Glitter Wars

_A/N: Happy holidays! Here is the first installment of the Halfblood Holidays series I will be doing this December. Feel free to pop into my ask box on tumblr or PM me with a prompt - I can't guarantee that I'll get to all of them but I'd love to try! Enjoy, friends._

* * *

Percy Jackson has a dilemma.

No one ever told him how quickly superglue dried. No one ever told him how easy it was to get your fingers stuck together.

Even more so, no one ever told him that if you try to use glitter it gets everywhere and stays everywhere.

All he wanted to do was make personalized (read: mostly blue with whatever their favorite color is, because blue is the best) holiday signs for everyone's bunks so that they can have little name tags over their beds, but no. Of course not.

Annabeth finds him about ten minutes later as he's still fighting to pull his fingers apart, and at this point his resolve was waning and he's considering chewing off his fingers and calling it a day.

"Percy," says Annabeth carefully, "why are you licking your fingers?"

"Is this another one of those situations where Percy's being an idiot?" comes Piper's voice, and Percy can see her hopping up and down from behind Annabeth, trying to see over the taller girl's shoulder. "Come on, Annabeth, move, I want to see!"

Percy calls her something rather unflattering and she shoots back with an insult of her own, but the grin they exchange makes it clear it's all in good fun.

Until Piper sees exactly what Percy did. "Oh my god," says Piper, her hand flying to cover her mouth. "You glued your fingers together, didn't you?"

Percy grumbles something he can't even translate, and avoids Annabeth's eyes as she starts looking at his hand like he asked to keep a turkey for a pet in her bedroom.

"What was that?" asks Piper, the grin still on her face. "Percy, we can't hear you."

"It's superglue, and shut up, Piper, you got your hair caught in a toaster once. I wouldn't be talking."

Annabeth turns to Piper with the same look she had saved earlier for Percy, and Percy feels an odd sort of triumph that he was finally able to use that moment against her. "Did I manage to interact with the two dumbest people in this camp today?" Annabeth asks, throwing her hands up in the air. "Or was this just an unfortunate coincidence that makes my life harder starting at the first day back at camp? This is supposed to be winter break."

"The toaster thing was last year!" says Piper. "Besides, you have to deal with this idiot," Piper says, pointing her thumb to Percy. He flips her off using his other hand. "Oh, please, Percy," says Piper with a grin. "You think it's funny."

"It'll be funnier in a few seconds," says Percy, fighting back a grin. With his free hand, he grabbed a handful of glitter and then, moving quickly, grabs Piper around the waist and gives her a glitter noogie she would never forget.

"Percy!" Annabeth yells. "Not with the superglue!"

"It's in the other hand," says Percy, waving off her concerns. "Besides, Piper looks good in blue."

"You got more of it on yourself than her," says Annabeth. Percy follows her gaze to his shirt front, and sees that it got all over his chest.

"Why do you have to be so short?!" he exclaims to Piper. Her response is to headbutt him gently in the stomach. "Wait, what are you doing?!"

As Piper shakes her head against his shirt, she yells, "How do you like them apples, Papa Smurf?!" He doesn't have half a clue what she's talking about until she moves away, the glitter now completely covering his formerly grey tee shirt and trailing its way down until it catches in the denim of his jeans.

"Oh no," he says quietly. He silently steps back and grabs another handful as Annabeth and Piper laugh themselves silly, and reaches out to hug Annabeth, sidestepping at the last moment and dropping the fistful of blue glitter into her hair. "Looks like someone else has glitter problems."

Annabeth's looking at him like he just told her Tartarus would be a good vacation spot, and he is suddenly sure he has made a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad mistake. "Please don't kill me," he whimpers.

"Not kill," says Annabeth, far too calmly. "I'm just not going to tell you the cure for superglue fingers. And I'm not helping you clean up these glitter herpes."

"Neither am I," exclaims Piper, still shaking her hair out on the floor. "I'll be blue for weeks."

"Will you be blue, da ba dee, da ba di?" Annabeth asks, strangely seriously.

"No, you dolt," says Piper with an eye roll. "We should all get to dinner now, since that's why we came in here." She looks down at the floor. "Good luck cleaning up that floor with your glue hand before room inspections tomorrow."

Percy's only response is to whine pathetically and wonder how his Christmas presents went so horribly, horribly wrong.

At least one good thing came out of it: he knew at least two people who were definitely not going to get one of his posters.


	2. Dastardly Snow Tactics

Annabeth, Piper, and Rachel throw themselves behind the barricade they made out of a couple of spears, some well constructed snow bricks, and a few planks of two by fours. Annabeth, in the back of her mind, applauds her architectural skills.

"The boys are going down," says Annabeth. "But we have the slight problem of Percy's immunity to water."

"Does ice count?" Piper asks, frowning. She has a chunk of snow stuck in her long side braid and a dusting across her shoulders from where one of Percy's snowballs nailed her in the back of the head. "Like, can we take him down with snowballs?"

Annabeth tilts her head to the side like she does whenever an idea pops into her head. "Huh," she says, "you know, I haven't ever thought about it." Without another word, she crawls out from behind the barricade and sprints in snow boots and a parka over to a tree, swinging up onto a low branch and vaulting off into a pile of snow, rolling down until she's right behind a certain son of Poseidon.

"Hi, Percy," she says with a grin, but before he can turn all the way around, she's wrapped a hand around his mouth and is dragging him behind the snow pile. The other boys don't even notice he's disappeared. She tosses him easily to the ground and, before he can call out, straddles him and kisses him firmly in the snow. She can feel his lips bow into a smile as he threads gloved fingers through her hair, his other hand dancing along the bottom of her jacket. She reaches back and pins that arm to the ground.

"No way," she says, breaking away from his lips, "no how. We need to try an experiment."

Percy looks up at her and frowns. "But I was enjoying that kissing experiment. What kind of experiment are you thinking of? Because what I'm thinking might be a little cold in the sn – MMPH!" He's cut off by Annabeth shoving a fistful of snow into his face, and she stares at him as he looks up at her in shock, spitting out the snow to the side of his face. "What was that?!"

"HE'S NOT IMMUNE TO SNOW!" Annabeth shouts. Before Percy can respond, she leans down to firmly kiss him again, just enough to make sure he's dazed enough to lay there in the snow oblivious for a little while longer, then gets up, sprinting back to her fortress. She hears him calling after her as he scrambles to chase her, but only she can vault into the fortress with that tree branch. He's not going to be following her in here.

Piper high fives her when she gets in. "Use the kissing technique I taught you?"

Annabeth grins. "Turns out daughters of Athena can charm the sense out of their boyfriends just as well as daughters of Aphrodite can."

"Charm my ass," says Rachel, peering over the barrier wall, "Percy just loses his head whenever you kiss him."

Annabeth shrugs as she gets back to work packing snowballs. "I'm not going to say you're right or you're wrong," she begins, a smile spreading across her face, "but you're right."


	3. Open Windows and Big Mistakes

_A/N: I don't even know what this is other than a component of goofiness for my 31 Days of Halfblood Holidays. Enjoy, my loves! Also I apologize for how garbled the chapter was earlier - I accidentally started writing two fics into one and published without proofreading well enough (oops.) This chapter has more of a T rating, depending on how you look at the chapter. Whoops!  
_

* * *

The door slams and Percy jumps from where he sits on the couch, trying to decide whether Duck Dynasty or Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was the better movie choice for the first day of his winter break. Finally, on December 14th, he has time to curl up on the couch he shares with Annabeth and watch television. Or so he thought.

"Hello?" he asks, his hand going automatically to the pocket where Riptide could always be found.

"Perseus Alexander Jackson," Annabeth storms, and before Percy can react properly, he is hit in the face by Annabeth's dressy winter coat. She's hitting him with the middle name. He's screwed. "You are in so much trouble I don't think there's a word in the English, ancient Greek or Latin languages that could describe how mad I am."

"Are you going to yell at me?" he asks, looking up at her.

"What do you think?"

"Can I pee first?" Annabeth gives him a look that makes him forget about everything but how nervous he is. "It can wait," he mutters. "Wanna tell me what I did?"

"Do you remember that thing we have called a car that I drive to work?"

He furrows his eyebrows, not sure where she's going with this. "Did I forget to fill the gas tank again?"

"That's only the beginning," she says, and the way she's gripping the top of one of their kitchen chairs makes Percy gulp. "Someone named Percy left the car windows open. So I had to drive to work with the windows frozen open. The seat of my pants was drenched from the ice and snow that had drifted in from the window. And I shivered for literally forty minutes after I got inside my building." She walks toward him and stares him dead in the face, and Percy has to consciously make an effort not to lean away from her. "Forty. Minutes," she repeats, and Percy's the first one to look away from the stare down.

"I'm sorry," he says, looking back at those vaguely terrifying grey eyes, "I really am, but –"

"But nothing, you idiot, you managed to freeze my ass to the driver's seat when you were still sleeping!" Annabeth exclaims.

"Am I sleeping on the couch tonight?"

There is nothing Percy can say in response as Annabeth laughs derisively and slams the door after she walks into their bedroom.

Other than the car window thing, the worst decision Percy ever made was skimping on the couch.

* * *

Annabeth makes it worse when she starts to sigh in the way that Percy knows too well in their bedroom. He's freezing cold on the couch, since the living room in their apartment is always cold and he only has two little fleece blankets on top of him. He's been waiting all semester to have a night with Annabeth where neither of them have assignments to complete, and he managed to completely blow it. And Annabeth knows exactly what to do to mess with his head, and she's doing it.

In a risky move, he calls out, "How's it going, honey?" and Annabeth responds with another, throatier moan.

Percy has definitely screwed himself over for the night.

He lies on the couch as he hear the sighs grow stronger into moans, and then go from being quiet to loud, then back to quiet.

He squirms on the couch, staring at the Christmas tree they had put up a week ago to distract himself from the noises he was hearing from their bedroom, and then realizes: he's too tired to even think about anything but sleeping and Annabeth, and if he can just get back into his bedroom and catch her when she's just drifted off to sleep and thus more amiable, he might be able to get some rest.

Silently, Percy stands up and moves into their doorway, looking at Annabeth who is now fully asleep, hugging a pillow to her chest and moving restlessly.

"Can I come back to bed now?" he asks quietly as he sits at the foot of their bed. Annabeth's grey eyes open slowly and look at him. She sighs dramatically.

"Fine sure bed," she mutters in an only mostly discernible tone, dropping her head back to her pillow. "Bed time." Percy watches Annabeth tap the part of the bed behind her and chuckles low at the soft smile on Annabeth's face.

"I'm allowed to come back?" he asks.

Annabeth nods. "Cold in bed without your stupidity," she says, her words slurred by sleep again, "come back. I miss you. Even though you're a dummy."

Percy sighs and laughs as slides into bed, his arms wrapping around Annabeth's waist as she snuggles into him. He's about to fall asleep, his face buried in her curly, thick hair when she says, "I'm still mad at you."

"Because I left the car door open?"

"Because you are the paramount of idiots who can't shut up when they're cuddling with their girlfriend," she replies, still sleep blurred.

"Noted," says Percy. The night fades slowly as Annabeth falls asleep against him, and Percy's eyes fall shut as the night gets darker. He sleeps more soundly when Annabeth Chase is next to him and he knows, from the way that Annabeth links her fingers with his and turns to press light kisses to his neck n her sleep, that she is the same way.


	4. Tinsel Trouble

_A/N: Fluff warning. Endless magical Christmas fluff. SO MUCH FLUFF! I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

Annabeth Chase is stuck in tinsel. It didn't happen on purpose and she's not sure when it happened, but she is stuck in tinsel and has some pine needles wrapped up in her hair and she has no idea how to get out.

She yells for Percy one or two more times, but it seems like he probably fell asleep again. The dummy.

She checks the tree to make sure it's still standing and that she hasn't knocked it over – it is – but in turning her head, her hair wove itself into the tinsel, and she was now face first into the tree, unable to move.

"Oh, for the love of Athena," Annabeth grumbles. She pushes some of the tinsel off of her hands and wiggles her arms up far enough to move her hair. She mutters and grumbles as she pushes it away, and, eventually, part of it is unleashed. That, of course, is when Sally Jackson walks into her living room.

"Annabeth?" she exclaims. "Not that I'm unhappy to see you, but what are you doing next to my Christmas tree in my living room?"

Annabeth sighs and turns so she's facing Sally, praying nothing gets knocked over in the process. "Percy and I planned on decorating your tree for you," she says, "and it was supposed to be a surprise. But I think Percy got really distracted and fell asleep in his room when he went to get more ornaments from the attic."

"Have you been stuck here for a while, sweetie?" Sally asks her, and without much hesitation steps over to Annabeth and begins working at her hair. "Oh, dear, you really are stuck." She begins working on Annabeth's hair, pulling at the tinsel and tree branches gently.

"Thanks," says Annabeth, "thanks a lot, Mrs. Jackson."

"Annabeth, my dear, call my Sally."

Annabeth can't help but smile. "Thanks, Sally."

After a few moments and Sally only pulling her hair twice, Annabeth is freed from the malicious holiday decorations. "Now," says Sally. "To the second most important thing. Where did that son of mine go?"

They venture into Percy's bedroom, where he is flat on his stomach, snoring. Annabeth laughs a little. Ever since the Giant War was over, ever since Tartarus, it's like the two of them couldn't get enough sleep. They'd been running for years – sometimes just stopping was what they needed, no matter the homework that needed to be done or the trees that needed to be decorated.

"He's drooling," comments Annabeth.

"He's done that since he was a baby," says Sally, and Annabeth turns to see her leaning against the door frame and giving her son a smile that Annabeth's only seen her dad give her a few times. It pulls at her heart.

"Annabeth," says Sally, "you know you're always welcome here, right?"

Annabeth starts a little at the comment. "R-right," she says nodding. "Of course."

"I mean it," says Sally, and she wraps Annabeth in a hug so maternal it feels wrong for a moment before it feels right. "You're family, sweetheart. I want you to feel like this is your home too. I want you to have someplace safe when you're not at camp, somewhere else you can call home."

Annabeth lets herself hug Sally back, resting her chin on her shoulder, and they stay that way, until Percy calls from the bed, "Hey, no hogging my mom! And no hogging my girlfriend!"

"Oh, calm down, Percy, and wipe the drool off your face," says Sally. She moves apart from Ananbeth. "We were having some girl time while you were having some nap time."

"I wasn't napping," Percy says defiantly, "I was – I was – I was. I was napping."

"We know," say Annabeth and Sally together, and that's when Annabeth realizes that the two of them are giving Percy the same look, standing the same way, and folding their arms just alike.

"Let's get that tree done," laughs Sally, "before anyone else passes out or gets stuck in tinsel."

Percy's eyes light up. "You got stuck in tinsel?!" he exclaims. "Oh, Mom, please tell me you got pictures of that."

"I did not take pictures of your girlfriend getting stuck in our Christmas tree!" Sally replies.

"You should have," grumbles Percy, "that's something I would have liked to see."

Sally walks ahead of them, leaving Percy and Annabeth in the hall before making their way into the living room.

"There's still some of that tinsel in your hair, though," says Percy, threading his fingertips through her hair, brushing his thumb against Annabeth's jawline, "oh, look, there's some over here," he kisses at her temple, "and over here," he kisses at her forehead.

"There isn't any tinsel on my lips, but you can head there next, if you'd like," says Annabeth. "On second thought, I've got that covered." She stands on her tip toes and kisses him firmly, and as Percy's arms hold her close, she starts to think that, maybe, just maybe, this will be the best Christmas that a polytheistic child of a Greek goddess who has fought countless mythological morons will ever have.


	5. The Christmas Spirit

_A/N: READ THIS. Okay so this chapter is WAY about K+ to the point where I'm changing the rating to T for the whole collection just to be safe. Rating of M for this puppy. I hope you enjoy!_

* * *

It all started on December first. Reyna walked into a meeting in this hideous monstrosity of a sweater, with embroidered reindeer and a bright red background that nearly blinded Piper.

"Holy crap," says Piper, wincing. "Can you never wear that again?"

"Sure," says Reyna, "I've got a whole arsenal of these sweaters. I don't need to rewear any of them."

The words terrified Piper.

For good reason, too. For the next few days Reyna keeps coming into meetings, dinners, with new and stupider Christmas sweaters along with a smile she shoots at Piper whenever Piper groans. On December 3rd, she's wearing a sweater that has skulls wearing Santa hats. On the 5th, she's got one on that has colliding reindeer and a border of bells. The 6th is another bad one – it's some stupid Christmas scene appliquéd on and there are actual beads sewn in to look like snow. Piper gets more and more tempted just to tear one off and see what happens, but she's painfully sure that Reyna will have some sort of holiday themed shirt on underneath.

Then, on the 9th, something even stupider happens: Piper walks into Cabin Ten to see a package on her bed. The card on top reads, "For the prettiest of the Aphrodite girls, Love Reyna," and immediately Piper is worried about what her idiot girlfriend got her this time.

Of course. It's a Christmas sweater.

Piper storms into Reyna's guest room in the Big House, where she's staying for the time being, holding the accursed sweater in her hands. "What the hell is this supposed to be?" is what she means to say, but all she gets out is, "What the – sweater," as she sees Reyna stretched out on her stomach, laying on her bed, her sweater just barely brushing the curve of her ass.

"You have a problem, McLean?" Reyna asks, and Piper wants to half kill her for the smirk on her face. "You're supposed to knock."

"You're supposed to be the stylish one," Piper comments back, but even she can't deny the fact that her eyes are locked on Reyna in that stupid sweater that either covers too much or not enough. This one, sweater number 9, has a bright green background with a bunch of mice in elf costumes prancing around. It's literally the stupidest thing Piper has ever seen, yet she finds herself bizarrely turned on.

"You're staring," comments Reyna airily. "Do you like the sweater after all?"

"No, you asshole, take it off and fuck me in the Christmas tree lighting before I stop to think about why I find you hot right now," Piper peels her shirt off and walks over to the bed, but Reyna shifts, shaking her head.

"I don't think so," says Reyna, the sweater just barely grazing the tips of her thighs and Piper feels heat pool low in her belly. "The Christmas Spirit is too strong in this room to remove any of it."

"I'm going to kill you," says Piper, pushing her jeans down her legs. "My bra and panties are red and green. And lacy. Just, like, deal with that, okay?"

"Not Christmas enough," says Reyna, and the sweater crawls up to her stomach when she stretches her arms over her head, and Piper just whimpers. "There's not even any reindeer. It's a praetorian demand. Or something."

"There are bows on my bra, though," says Piper.

"The Christmas Spirit does not accept," says Reyna, and shifts again to pull the sweater over her long legs. "It requires a sacrifice."

"If you're volunteering, I see a window I can throw you out of," grumbles Piper, but even that comment doesn't quell Reyna's bright smile.

"Well somebody's Scrooge-ing it up," says Reyna. "Gosh, and I got you the funny Christmas sweater too!"

Piper ducks down and picks the horror show Reyna got her up off of the ground. "Funny?!" she exclaims. "Jesus, it sounds like a blowjob joke!" She holds it up, making sure that the pile of presents, Santa Claus, and saying are clear.

Reyna reads it aloud. "If you don't believe, you don't receive," she singsongs. "I mean, that's pretty applicable for tonight, if you catch my drift."

Piper groans. "If you're not careful, I'll charmspeak you to take off the stupid shirt and throw it away and put on different clothes!"

Reyna shrugs. "You can try."

Piper closes her eyes, concentrating, and opens them, locking her glance and smile on Reyna, and sweetly says, "Reyna, baby, how about you take off that shirt and put something else on?"

"Nope," says Reyna, "I've got Christmas Spirit on my side."

There's a brief internal struggle before Piper groans in exasperation, violently pulls the horrible sweater on over her head and dives at Reyna, the praetor's hands catching Piper deftly and pulling the smaller girl into her lap.

"I knew the Christmas Spirit would get to you," says Reyna, her hands sliding up into Piper's shirt and unhooking her bra.

"Ho ho ho merry – FUCK." Like always, Piper's snarky comment is cut short as Reyna brushes her fingertips against Piper's nipples. Piper sighs in this stupid, breathy way she sort of hates, but loves the giggle Reyna lets out in response.

"You barely even tried to pretend you weren't going to get off on this," laughs Reyna. "Now, what on earth are we going to do with those holiday undies of yours?"

"Take them off along with the sweaters, I'm hoping."

Reyna makes a face that Piper hates. "Sweaters stay on. If you don't believe, you don't receive."

"I'm going to shred that sweater off of you," Piper growls, and, again, Reyna just smiles.

"You can try," she replies with a sly grin.

And try Piper does, but she doesn't get very far before she's flat on her back and Reyna's got her gasping and moaning between half-formed curses. At one point Reyna starts humming against her, and it so new and so different that Piper comes in a few seconds more and it's only after, when Reyna's humming again that Piper realizes what the tune was.

"Were you seriously fucking singing 'It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas' when you were getting me off?!" she yells, and pelts Reyna with a pillow. "You are so WEIRD, are you sure you're not the daughter of the goddess of weird?!"

"It felt relevant," says Reyna, running her fingertips across the sweater Piper is wearing, "you do look a lot like Christmas."


	6. Winter Formal

_A/N: Rated about T+, this chapter is. Enjoy!_

* * *

Annabeth has to admit, seeing Percy in that ridiculous suit made her smile. There was something about Winter Senior Formal that always makes Percy Jackson dress up and look like a gentleman, and Annabeth can't help but stare.

Like always, Percy catches her.

"I know, I know," he says, a blush tingeing his cheeks. "I look awesome." He chuckles, and Annabeth follows. But she doesn't stop staring at him. "And my mom's going to make us take pictures, I hope you realize."

Annabeth shrugs, the soft, silver and blue material of her dress shifting against her skin. "It could be worse," she mentions, "it could be my mom."

Percy shudders – Annabeth's still not sure what went down between the two of them, but she's pretty sure Percy and her mother do not get along – and recovers quickly, pulling Annabeth close to him before there's much more that can interrupt their meeting. She smiles up at him, feeling that familiar pull at her heart like a string that pulls her toward him.

"Hi," he says, "And you, um, you look…You always look beautiful, but wow."

"'But wow' works for me," says Annabeth, wrapping her arms around his waist, "how much time do you think we have before your mom and Paul barge in and make us take pictures?"

He shrugs and presses his lips to hers, strong arms picking her up so she's barely brushing the ground with her tip toes. "Not enough time," says Percy, and his tone is rough and sends something hot and heavy and wonderful down into Annabeth's belly. She breaks away from him, just for a second, and pulls him into the little pantry the hall, and they have to press against each other so tightly to fit into the closet that it's almost too much. Annabeth feels that heat grow, almost take over her body.

"Are you seducing me in a pantry?" Percy asks. "Because I've got to tell you, if we get down to business in here, I'm never going to look at that vacuum cleaner the same way."

Annabeth can't help but laugh. "Of course not," she says, the fingers she lets brush against the front of Percy's shirt telling a different story, "we can't ruin our wonderful outfits. I'm just looking for some privacy."

"Well a pantry will do it." Percy, like usual, sends her a silly grin she can just barely make out in the dark, and grabs at something. "Hey, look! Christmas frosting! We should bring it to the food drive!"

"And they say boys have the one track mind," mumbles Annabeth, looking her boyfriend up and down the best she can in the dark. "I drag you into a pantry closet to make out and you get distracted by frosting?"

"Or was I just trying to mess with you," he asks, and suddenly Annabeth's flush against him and his lips are on hers and, gods, he still makes her melt with the way he kisses her. As his hand grabs her thigh and pulls her closer to him, she has to force back a moan at the memory of the last time they ended up like this.

They were in Percy's room, his parents out for the afternoon, and they didn't even make it to the bed before her legs were hooked around his waist and his shirt was half off. Annabeth accidentally moans a little in the pantry as she remembers the feeling and it clashes with the present, and Percy's reaction is to seal his mouth over hers.

After a few more seconds, she breaks away.

"You were loud again," he singsongs, kissing below her ear. Her eyes flutter shut as she tilts her neck to give him better access.

"You make me be loud," she says, "and we should probably get out of here before either of us ruin our super awesome outfits. Or your parents come back. Maybe"

Percy steps away from her as best he can in the dark. "You're right," he replies, putting a hand on the door knob. "We need to head out.

Annabeth pretends to pout for a few seconds. "But it's so much fun in here," she says with a smile, but even so, she's not prepared for what Percy says in response. He ducks down and presses his lips to the shell of her here, then speaks in a whisper.

"We'll have much more fun after the dance," is his reply, but he says it in a way that sends chills, delicious chills, down Annabeth's spine and makes her want to skip the dance and go right to whatever fun he's thinking of.

As light floods in when he opens the doors, checking to make sure no parents are around, he sends her a grin and they walk into the open, but not before they steal another kiss.

"Time to dance?" she says, wishing, for once, that her schools dances weren't as fun and weren't worth going to.

"Definitely," he says, and takes her hand.

They are immediately attacked by cameras when they get into the living room.

"Candids are an important part of the picture taking process," says Paul solemnly, "you two have to look bad at least a few times in your lives."

"I didn't look too hot in Tartarus," jokes Annabeth, but Percy ruins the moment when he says, "Yes you did."

Annabeth makes the decision to roll her eyes and pose for all the goofy pictures Paul demands. She draws the line at a picture making it look like Percy's putting her on top of the Christmas tree – she may have gotten out of hell, but she's no angel on top of the tree. She'll prove it later that night in Percy's bedroom, when Paul and Sally have gone for a late dinner and she's got Percy flat on his back calling her name.

"Yep," she mutters to herself as she leans down to kiss Percy firmly, feeling his hands slide up her back, "definitely not an angel."


	7. Bangerz

A/N: This is just all kinds of stupid. Happy holidays, my loves!

* * *

Nico whistles. He does. He never noticed himself doing it until he was around fifteen, after the Giant War, after the whole growing up thing. After the realizing he belonged at Camp Halfblood thing. But he started noticing it.

It got worse and worse as Christmas crept upon him, as, despite his standing as the son of a pagan god, Christmas is one of the only memories that's always a good one. His mother celebrated fiercely and infected everyone around her with the holiday cheer, and Nico never really was able to shake it off. He whistles every single Christmas song he's heard over his 70 plus years, most specifically the classic ones. He loves the classic songs.

Then, one Christmas season, other people start to notice the whistling.

He's sitting outside his cabin, sorting his Mythomagic cards again (shut up, they're still cool) when he blinks and realizes he's been whistling Jingle Bell Rock for the past few minutes. That's not unusual.

What's unusual is that someone else kept going when he had stopped.

"Hey," says Jason, popping out from behind the cabin. "I liked that one."

Scrabbling at his cards, Nico picks them up and shoves them (unsorted and unbanded, damn it all) into his bag. "This is my private space!" exclaims Nico, then winces at how stupid he sounds. "I mean, what are you – I give up." He offers Jason a sheepish smile. "I'll just go with hi."

"What are you up to?" Jason asks, sitting down next to Nico. "Oh, cool. Mythomagic? That game is boss."

"You play too?" asks Nico. "Seriously?"

Jason shrugs and lies down on the cold ground, his jacket protecting him from the cold. "Card games were kind of our thing at the Roman camp. Mythomagic, Pokemon, that kind of stuff during the day." He turns to Nico and sends him a smirk "And nothing's much better playing a little bit of strip poker when the praetors are asleep."

Nico frowns. "You WERE a praetor."

Jason chuckles. "Okay, when Reyna was asleep. What pack do you want for Christmas?"

"Huh?" asks Nico, confused by the rapid change in topic.

"For Mythomagic," Jason replies. "What do you want? So I can tell people at Secret Santa."

Nico, for the life of him, can't think of an answer, so he blurts out, against his better judgment, "Bangerz."

Jason's eyebrows shoot up. "What?" He's laughing, but not unkindly.

"I have a thing for ridiculous dance pop," Nico says, dropping his head in his hand. "We are never going to talk about this ever again."

"But I need to talk about this," says Jason firmly. "We need to talk about Miley Cyrus."

"We need to talk about anything else," says Nico. "You can suggest the Extinction 2013 pack of the Mythomagic cards."

"That and Bangerz," says Jason. "If only so I can borrow it."

"You don't listen to Miley Cyrus. Don't give me that," says Nico with an eye roll.

"I would have said exactly the same thing about you thirty seconds ago!" Jason replies. "Come on, Nico. Tell me what you want. What you really really want."

Nico drops face first onto the ground, wondering how he got stuck with Jason Grace.

* * *

The odds are not and will never be in Nico di Angelo's favor. After some simple logic and asking around, he makes the horrifying discovery that Jason has him for Secret Santa.

"Please tell him not to buy me any music," Nico says to Piper at dinner.

She turns to him. "Hello, good sir," she says, a forkful of spaghetti halfway to her mouth. "Who is he and why do you not want music?"

"For Secret Santa," says Nico, "I'm sure you know who has me."

"Actually, I don't," she replies. "Or I didn't. But I've got an idea now, since you asked me." Piper winks at him. "Totally going to go confirm after dinner."

"Please don't let him," Nico says.

"I'll see what I can do."

It doesn't work. Five days later he's sitting in front of all his friends, opening up his gift with dread. But it's not what he expects.

"Frank Sinatra Christmas?" Nico asks, confused. "But I – actually, thank you, Jason," Nico says with a sigh. "Thank you very much."

Jason shrugs. "What can I say, we've all heard you whistling those classic Christmas songs for the past month and a half."

* * *

Jason Grace is going to die and Nico's going to send furry little bunnies to do it.

It's still only December 19th, so Christmas music is still acceptable, but what he puts into his CD player is definitely not Christmas music when he puts it on shuffle.

Miley Cyrus starts singing about how she came in like a wrecking ball, and Nico scrambles to turn down the music before anyone hears.

It doesn't work.

"I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL," yells someone along with Miley as they barge into Nico's cabin.

"Jason, I'm going to kill you," grumbles Nico over the music. "Kill you dead."

Jason's only response is, "ALL I WANTED WAS TO BREAK YOU OFF."

"You're awful."

Jason reaches over and drags Nico into another one of his bone crushing hugs. "Merry Christmas, you little Miley Man. And a Bangerz new year."

Nico di Angelo hates his friends. But really, he likes them. He likes all of them a lot.


	8. Christmas Morning

"Merry Christmas, sleepy head," says Reyna, rolling over. "Come on, let's go meet everyone for hot chocolate."

Piper mumbles something incoherent and rolls over, dragging the covers over her body and away from Reyna. "Bed."

"No, come on, it's nine in the morning," says Reyna. "On Christmas. No one sleeps past nine on Christmas morning."

"I do. Now shut up before I kick you," says Piper.

Reyna stares at her for a few seconds, trying to determine the best plan of attack. Usually Piper would attack her if she turned on the lights, unfairly manicured nails going for her arms. Reyna's prior attempts at pulling the blankets off of Piper usually failed, as the younger girl was bizarrely strong when wrapped in blankets like a cocoon. And the one time Reyna tried pushing her out of the bed, Piper hit the floor with a thump and started wailing until Reyna felt so bad Piper turned off the fake tears.

So, all her usual tactics are out of commission. It is time for the more desperate of measures.

"Piper," Reyna singsongs quietly, her lips near Piper's ear, "honey, it's time to get up."

Piper mumbles something that Reyna thought could probably pass for no. Reyna brushes a lock of hair from Piper's eyes and kisses her forehead gently, then places a kiss to the tip of her nose. "Awake yet?"

A little smile spreads across Piper's face. "Nope," she says, eyes still shut. "Still asleep."

Reyna kisses her cheekbones, her eyelids, her temples, whispering, "Merry Christmas, sleepyhead. Are you awake now?" after every touch of her lips. Piper responds to each with, "No, I'm still asleep."

Finally Reyna leans down to press a kiss firmly on Piper's lips, and that's the moment Piper's hands wind up around Reyna's shoulders and pull her down against Piper.

"I think I'm awake now," Piper says a few moments later.

"Your eyes are still closed though," says Reyna, kissing along Piper's cheekbone. "You worried Santa's going to catch you sneaking a peek at the presents?"

Piper opens her eyes. "Nah, I just don't want to get out of bed yet," she says, her smile soft and honest. "I'm having a pretty good Christmas morning here."

Reyna sighs – Piper doesn't say that kind of thing often, but when she does she means it – but forces herself to get out of bed, offering a hand to the sleep-rumpled Piper. "We can spend Christmas Night in here too. I don't want to miss breakfast."

Piper sighs dramatically and tumbles out of bed, wrapped in the sheets and blankets in a way that makes her look even more cocooned than she had before. "I suppose I should get dressed?" she asks, looking a little downtrodden.

Reyna sneaks a peek outside the Big House window where she has been staying. "Everyone else is in pajamas. I think you're fine."

Piper pulls out the invisibility cap Annabeth had loaned her for the night and shoves it on her head, sneaking a last kiss to Reyna's cheek before darting out of the door before Reyna left.

When the two get to the fire, burning low and jolly on the holiday morning, Piper shoots her a grin like she hasn't seen Reyna in days. "Hey, Queen," she says, snarky as she usually is in public. "How's it going on this lovely Christmas morn?"

"Pretty good, Princess," says Reyna, and it's tough to keep from sitting too-close to Piper as she folds her legs in the chair. "Pretty good."


	9. Home A-Leo

_A/N: This one is in during the same Christmas as chapters 5 and 8. Enjoy!_

* * *

Leo Valdez should never have watched Home Alone.

The camp had decided as a whole – okay, it was mostly Jason, Rachel and Reyna teaming up to Christmas Spirit the hell out of the camp – to have a movie night every few nights until Christmas came about. It started out with Elf, next was It's a Wonderful Life, and day three was the first in the Home Alone series.

The entire movie Leo commented and whined about how stupid the movie was, about how illogical most of the ideas were.

"That little kid could never do that!" Leo exclaimed, his Santa had flying off of his head. "The weight and balance would be off and he'd break it before he could get enough strength to weld the material!"

"Leo," Jason, Piper, someone, inevitably, would say, "it's a movie."

But the movie gave Leo ideas, and when Leo gets ideas, it's not good for anyone.

The first Christmas themed prank he comes up with is the mistletoe one he had installed earlier that evening.

Now he waits in the shadows until someone walks under it.

And it's better than he could have planned. This mistletoe was something given to him by Calypso, a particularly enchanted plant that causes a person to think of themselves as a sex god. With a little tweaking, Leo's made sure it goes a little farther and makes a person love themself. At first the idea is to put it somewhere near the Aphrodite cabin, but it was too easy. So he gives himself an extra challenge: stick it outside the Big House when there's a Demigod Conference going on. Pranks are better when they hit your superiors, right?

It doesn't hit his superior. It hits someone who is both so much better and so much worse.

It's Frank who walks underneath it, and as he steps under the door, the mistletoe drops on his head. He fusses for a few minutes, inadvertently getting the magic all over himself, before he drops it to the ground. Then there's a new look in his eye as he turns to the window. "Damn," says Frank, the first time Leo's ever heard him swear, "Da-YUM!" He runs his hand through his short cropped hair, winking at himself. "When did I get so fine?"

Unfortunately, Leo's snort draws Frank's attention.

"Leo?" Frank asks, and as he breaks eye contact with himself, his eyes narrow. "Leo Val-freaking-dez, what the hell did you do?"

"Nothing," says Leo, forcing back a smile, "nothing at all."

Frank looks at him suspiciously, then catches his reflection again in a different window, and the spell hits him again. "I look so good," he says, touching his reflection. "A big slice of sexy, right?" He turns to Leo, and the expression changes again. "Valdez," he growls.

"Thank Narcissus for that idea!" Leo calls, laughing as he runs away.

"I'm going to kill you!" yells Frank, tripping over himself as he makes his way over to Leo. Unfortunately, a piece of particularly reflective metal hangs on the side of the Ares cabin, and he gets distracted again. "After I seduce this hot piece of ass. Hello, baby."

Leo nearly kills himself laughing as he darts away, stumbling over his feet, and finally makes it to the location of the second prank: a pulley system outside the Aphrodite cabin that would pour lukewarm chocolate (he isn't that mean) over the head of the first person that walks out of the cabin. His jaw drops when it isn't an Aphrodite kid

It's Reyna.

"Oh, what in the f –" he begins, but no matter how fast he moves, he can't stop the bucket from dumping on the Roman's head. He intends to make like a baby and head out, but something catches the back of his shirt and he jerks back, looking up into the eyes of a very angry, very red faced Piper McLean.

"You saw nothing," she snaps, but there's something in her eyes that says that he really, REALLY should not say anything to anyone about what he just saw. "Be unhere. Right now."

Leo doesn't hesitate as he books it out of there, but not before he hears Reyna shriek Piper's name alongside a couple of curses as a door slams.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Leo thinks he's safe now. He really does. It's been a few hours and no one's gotten back at him yet. Though, he thinks, maybe he shouldn't worry – maybe everyone's got a good impression of how good he is at pranking and that they won't get him back.

He's proven entirely wrong as he walks out of his cabin to get to dinner.

"Eat snow, Fire Balls!" yells Piper, chucking an entire bucket of snow over his head. Leo freezes in his spot, the cold hitting his face like a slap. "Hey!" he exclaims.

"Turn around, Flame Boy," says someone else, and, against his better judgment, Leo turns. Frank Zhang, with the worst smirk Leo's ever seen on his face, is standing there with a bucket of snow. "Merry Christmas, you Grinch." Before Leo even has the chance to melt off the first bucket, a second slams into his face. He hates that this is his first reaction, but he falls over backwards on the ground, and slowly the snow around him starts melting.

"Oh, sure," he grumbles, "now the stress heat response kicks in."

"Next time don't try to prank us," says Piper, setting the bucket on her hip. "Oh, and we're never letting you watch any of those movies again."

"Never," says Frank. "Never ever. Like, not even a little bit. Or Wreck-It Ralph."

"Why not Wreck-It Ralph?" Leo asks, sitting up, barely able to see the two snow fiends through the steam. "What's wrong with Wreck-It Ralph?"

"I do not want you trying to experiment with Felix's fix it all hammer," grumbles Frank.

Leo's eyes light up. "Well then," he says, jumping up. "Looks like I've got another project to work on."

As he dashes away, he hears Piper do something along the lines of kick Frank and yell, "You HAD to give him another damned idea…"


	10. Mistletoe

_A/N: This is rated T for only the, uh, bit at the end. Enjoy, my friends._

* * *

She blames it on her parents.

No, really. Rachel Elizabeth Dare is a product of her upbringing and, thus, the ornate Christmas decorations were all her parents' faults. They're the ones who taught her to go all out on the trimming of the tree: tinsel, ornaments, popcorn and cranberries, the freaking works. And then the mistletoe. Despite being the virgin Oracle, Rachel loves mistletoe. It's a fun excuse to use a dumbass pickup line and get a couple of smooches a day, just for fun.

And Rachel Elizabeth Dare loves fun.

Which is why, of course, she's absolutely livid at Leo Valdez for tampering with her beautiful decorations. Something the day before had been going on with him and Frank, and now no one will go anywhere near her decorations.

"Come on!" she complains that morning, standing underneath the Ares cabin door and a lovely sprig of the Christmas plant. "I swear, this one is one of mine! No one's going to fall in love with themselves this time."

"Like we'll believe you, Dare," says Clarisse with an eye roll. "Now let us through before we pound you."

"You'll do no such thing," says Rachel, folding red and gold stained fingertips across her chest. She has spent much of this day decorating a globular ornament for each of the campers. It's the least she could do for them. "Apollo would fry you to a freaking crisp and even you guys wouldn't risk that."

"I'd be willing to take those odds," growls a guy with dark brown hair that, really, Rachel did not recognize.

"Look, I'm standing under it," says Rachel, throwing her hands up in the air. "If this was going to do anything to anyone, wouldn't I be in love with myself already?" The look on Clarisse's face makes her say, "Don't answer that." For a few moments she looks from person to person, trying to get at least someone to deal with it, but no one's giving her even half a chance.

"Fine," Rachel sighs, letting it drag out and sound as whiny as humanly possible, "I'll take it down."

The second she touches the mistletoe, however, she knows something's wrong.

"Oh, no," she says. "Oh, this is bad."

"What's bad?" asks Clarisse. "Your decorative choices?"

"No, I – I have to go." Rachel throws the mistletoe down and books it down the stairs, through the center of the camp, and then runs into the Big House.

"I had a vision!" she exclaims to Annabeth, who is precariously perched on Percy's shoulders as she tries to put the star at the top of the tree. Rachel's startled that the two of them can see, since the only light in the room is the menorah and a couple of holiday lights. "We have a problem! Piper's in trouble!"

"Trouble?" asks Percy, and the sudden movement causes Annabeth to lose her balance, flopping off Percy's shoulders and landing straight on top of Rachel as Percy falls right back into the wall.

"Not that I don't appreciate your voluptuous womanhood pressing into mine," snarks Rachel, "but this is so not going to help Piper."

"Sorry, sorry, totally not on purpose!" says Annabeth. "Tell me, what's going on?" She stands and rushes to help Percy up. "Where is she?"

"In Bunker Nine," says Rachel as they run to Piper. "I picked up a thing of mistletoe and – well, I saw her screaming. I don't have any idea what the connection was, but she looked like something was killing her."

"Fuck," says Annabeth, "it must be a monster. I told Leo we need to work on the defenses of that place. Opening it just made it vulnerable! We need to get there fast."

They run in panicked silence until they rip open the door to Bunker Nine. (Well, rip open may be a bit strong. Annabeth presses her hand to the coding pattern and Percy and Rachel dance around impatiently until the door opens.) They run through the labyrinth, trying to figure out where Rachel's vision came from.

They hear Piper's voice, in between heart wrenching screams, yell, "God, what are you even doing? This is killing me, fuck!"

"We have to go save her!" shouts Rachel, and she doesn't stop for a second, even though Annabeth grabs her arm and says, "Um, Rachel, I don't think we need to –"

What Rachel sees will be burned into her retinas until Christmas of 2119. At least.

Reyna's on her knees in front of Piper.

And not in a shoe-tying way.

"Oops," squeaks Rachel as Percy and Annabeth literally drag her out of the room before Reyna or Piper notice them. "I have made an error."

"You think, Oracle Girl?" grumbles Annabeth. "Next time ask the Oracle for a bit clearer of a vision."

"Sounds good," whimpers Rachel, still feeling scarred. "Stupid virgin Oracle."


	11. Christmas Spirit 2: A New Incarnation

_A/N: This is 8 levels of stupid goofiness written while listening to the spedup version of The Phoenix by Fall Out Boy. I apologize for the stupidity but it's a fun one. Rated about T. Enjoy!_

* * *

"Percy, take off the Santa hat."

Percy folds his arms across his chest. "I will not."

Annabeth rolls over in bed, sighing. "For god's sake, I'm not sleeping with you if you keep that hat on."

"Yes you will," he says, rolling his eyes. "Piper slept with Reyna that one time when Reyna had the sweaters. Piper has charmspeak and couldn't even resist the Christmas Spirit."

Annabeth, at this point, decides to pull a Piper, roll off the bed, and land face down on the floor. It's her and Percy's first Christmas at their new apartment together, the first Christmas Eve spent in their own place…

And Percy put a Christmas hat on his head, accompanied by a pair of truly garish Christmas boxers.

"But I look good," says Percy, and Annabeth's pretty sure that's a whine she heard. "Come on, we have the Christmas lights up, and we've got all the Christmas-y-ness everywhere else. Why not on top of our heads?"

"Because we're adults, you absolute coconut," Annabeth replies. "And adults have sex like normal people."

"Normal people have sex against the refrigerator on Christmas Eve?" Percy asks, and Annabeth can basically see the stupid smirk on his face through his tone of voice.

"That doesn't count," says Annabeth. "That was my idea, and it was a good idea, so it has nothing to do with this conversation. Normal people aren't good enough for sex up against the fridge."

"I'll give you that one," says Percy, and suddenly his head pops up over the bed, stupid face with a stupid hat. "But come back to bed. Santa Claus is going to find you sitting on the floor and he's going to be pissed if you don't get to sleep on time."

"Please tell me you're not pretending to be Santa," asks Annabeth, horrified. "Please."

"Not unless that," Percy leans over to grab something, and pops over the side of the bed with a white tee shirt of his tied underneath his chin for no reason, "turns you on."

"Gods, no, what is WRONG with you?!" Annabeth says with a laugh. "And for Hades' sake, what's with the shirt?"

"It's my beard white as snow!" Percy replies.

"White as snow?" Annabeth asks. "Percy, there's a raspberry jam stain down the front of it."

With a glance down at the shirt, Percy frowns. "Santa got into the Christmas jelly too early?"

Annabeth can't help but laugh at him, and finally gets back into bed. "Please take your hat off," she begs, "it just looks so weird. I'll never be able to look at Christmas hats again."

He sighs. "Will it be like the Saint Patrick's Day top hat thing?"

"Yes," she replies, "yes it will be."

"Then I am keeping it on until I die," Percy replies, "because good, good things happen when you get in the Saint Paddy's day mood. And there are 25 days of Christmas, not just 1."

Annabeth grabs her pillow and whacks him in the face with it. "Just take off the hat."

Percy sighs. "Fine."

Annabeth leans down to kiss him, his fingertips threading through her hair.

"One more thing," says Percy.

Annabeth groans as she rests her forehead against his. "What is it now, Christmas Brain?"

"There's a certain bow you might want to untie to get to the present."

Percy Jackson, Annabeth decides, should never ever be allowed to get Christmas decorations.


	12. Gingerbread

"It's going to be a race."

"We're not racing."

"It's going to be a race."

Jason sighs and drops his head into his hand. "Piper, just once, not a competition?"

She grins at him. "You usually like our competitions."

He blushes, flying back to a particularly interesting one involving an unconventional staring contest. "Yeah," he grumbles, "usually."

"Come on," Piper begs, and even without any charmspeak, Jason finds himself falling under Piper's completely regular eyelash fluttering spell. "Maybe this time I'll let you win."

"You will not," scoffs Jason. "If anything, you'll steal my frosting and shoot me with it." The glint in her eyes scares him. "Oh, no," he says, grabbing his frosting and cradling it against his chest. "You are not coming anywhere near my frosting."

A single eyebrow raise from Piper and Jason's rolling his eyes. "I didn't mean it like that!" he exclaims. "Gods, Piper, you are ruining a nice, wholesome gingerbread house adventure."

To Jason's horror, Piper puts some frosting on her finger and slowly licks it off, her eyes dead locked on Jason's. He is convinced he is about to die. Or something. He's not sure what he's thinking right now.

"What's wrong?" she asks, a little, horrible smile on her lips. "You a little turned on?"

"Yes," he says automatically. "No! Shut up!"

Piper laughs, "It's fun to get you flustered."

Jason has no effective verbal response. Piper's got words. Jason has actions.

So he takes his own idea and applies it, squirting Piper right in the fact with the vanilla frosting meant for the gingerbread house.

Her jaw drops as it gets all over her, her eyes widening. "Oh, my gods," she says quietly.

"I'm not apologizing," Jason blurts out.

"You don't have to," Piper chuckles. "You just did the anti-Jason thing. You broke the rules! You're supposed to be the poised, stoic one who has to reign me in!"

"You provoked me," he says with a grin, "and it was fun."

"Hmm," says Piper. And that's when she starts, inexplicably, sticking random candies to herself, in what appears to be rainbow order.

"Piper," Jason says carefully, "what are you doing and why aren't we working on the gingerbread houses?"

"I am the gingerbread house," Piper replies very seriously. "I am the artistic piece."

"Are you dessert too?" Jason laughs.

And that's when Piper looks up at him with eyes that can't be called anything other sinful. "Maybe I am," she says, a slow smile spreading across her face.

"I hate you sometimes," says Jason. "Before you, I followed most rules and didn't sully people's outfits with frosting. I also didn't get the urge to get it on in the Big House kitchen."

"Oh, come on," says Piper, walking slowly toward him, "before me you didn't even know what the Big House was. Without me, you'd be a nun."

"I think you mean monk," he says as he reaches for her, but anything he was planning on saying after that is completely gone when Piper sticks a gumdrop in his mouth.

Piper grins up at him. "Let's take care of all this frosting, shall we?"

"God, you're the damned devil," Jason laughs, but that doesn't stop him from running his tongue along a stripe of frosting that found its way along Piper's neck.

The gingerbread houses are going to have to wait.


	13. A Rather Snowy Boo Boo

It's Piper's idea to go skiing.

"It's easy," she tells them as they drive up, Annabeth driving and Piper in the front seat after a brief scuffle with Percy. "Just slide your feet and get there. You should do well if you focus."

"You're going to have to teach us," says Percy, "none of us have ever been skiing before."

"I went once," mentions Frank. "When I was little. My grandmother just sort of pushed me down a hill, though. I hit a bump and then before I knew it I was face first in the snow."

"I can tell why you only went once," says Jason.

"That's downhill," says Piper, waving it off, "we're doing cross-country. It's better for a group. We can talk as we ski."

"Won't that get difficult?" asks Leo. "I mean, I feel like I'm going to end up huffing and puffing a bit."

"You won't," says Piper. "Trust me, all of you are going to be great at it just the second you strap those skis on. I guarantee it."

Piper was horribly, horribly wrong.

Five minutes in, and Percy's flat on his back, Leo's melted all the snow around him and got caught in his skis, Frank got so flustered he turned into a seal, Annabeth's got one ski locked underneath another, Hazel and Jason are sitting down with their skis to the side, playing with the snow, and Piper's the only one who's had any success.

"How are you good at everything?" Percy moans from where his legs are propped awkwardly in the air. "I can't even stand up! I have fallen and I can't get up! I'm down for the count! I'm dead!"

"Oh, calm, down," says Annabeth. "You're not dead. You're just stuck."

"Pot, this is kettle, you're black," says Percy. "And I am dead."

Piper pushes herself around gracefully, smiling at all of her annoyed friends. "Oh, come on. Cross country skiing is a grand adventure! We can see nature and stuff!"

"If you keep being perky," says Annabeth in a voice she usually saves for people interrupting her concentration, "I will be forced to punch you."

Piper snorts. "Yeah, if you can get those skis fixed. So that'll be, what, five hours from now?"

"You are a deviant and a fool," Annabeth shoots back, but Piper knows she's got her. She's still made no progress in unlocking the skis, and Piper's effort is 100% on not mocking her to avoid future bodily harm. She's pushed the limit enough.

"We should just bail on skiing," says Hazel, beginning to make a charming little snow family. "Or collapse like Frank into an adorable little fur creature."

Seal Frank looks up at Hazel, a distinctly disgruntled expression on his little face, and promptly flicks snow into Hazel's face.

Hazel squeaks indignantly and clears the snow from her face. "I'm sorry I mocked your small adorable sealness," Hazel says with an eye roll. She picks up Frank and puts him in her lap, which works until he turns human and she falls backward.

"That was just mean," Hazel grumbles, her face full of Frank's snow jacket. "I apologized and everything."

"You made fun of seal me," Frank replies, shuffling off of her as best he could in his snow gear. He, of all people, had the most difficulty fitting into the clothing they had available.

"Let's just get hot chocolate," says Percy, arms dramatically thrown over his face. "I cannot deal with the snow anymore. It's damaging my completion."

"I think you mean complexion," says Annabeth, "but yeah, hot chocolate is good. Help me out of this, someone?"

"I think you're good," says Piper, gracefully skiing away. "I'll see all of you back at the lodge?"

"Piper McLean, you get back here now!" shouts Jason from behind her, and she chuckles until something pelts her in the back of the head. She turns around to see Jason and Hazel, unsteady on their skis, chucking snowballs at her from where they stood. Annabeth and Percy are making them while Frank as a dog digs up plenty of snow.

"Am I in trouble?" she mutters. "I think I'm in trouble."

"Yeah you are," says a voice, and suddenly Leo Valdez pops out from the trees, sending a fireball at the snowball headed for Piper's face. It goes from snow to freezing water to lukewarm water quickly, and smacks her right in the face.

"Well that was uncalled for," she mutters. "All I ever did was –"

"Make us strap wood to our feet?" suggests Annabeth, who finally had given up and just took the skis off.

"Make us try to ski in the first place?" adds Percy, whose skis were being undone by Annabeth as he continues his drama queen act.

"Come on, now."

"Piper, you had to have known this wouldn't work," says Leo with a grin. "I mean, I melt things. Practically for a living. Frank turns into sea creatures when he's flustered, Percy's got all the balancing skills of a weeble –"

"I believe the weeble tagline is that they wobble but don't fall down," comments Frank, but his addition is ignored by Leo.

" – and you have so much prior experience that you'd barely be able to help us anyway. In short, you made a boo boo."

"I did make a boo boo, didn't I," says Piper, frowning.

"You made," says Jason, stumbling up behind her. "A rather snowy boo boo."


	14. Hazel's Christmas Present

The first thing he hears from Hazel is a little gasp and a, "Whoa."

Hazel's never been in this part of the Big House before, and Percy knows that. Though visits are frequent and lengthy between the camps, there's rarely ever any time for any tours or show you arounds.

Today, however, Percy decided to throw Hazel through a loop and introduce her to the Technodome. It's not a dome and it has no techno music at all, but Leo insisted on the name in exchange for altering cell phones to be used by demigods, so it was named Technodome despite other, more logical, campers', insistence.

"Come on, my mom totally wants to say hi!"

"Your mom's never met me."

"Fine, Hazel. Then my mom wants to meet you digitally. Internet-y. Over video chat. We can Skype."

"I didn't understand any of those sentences."

That was the exchange that allowed Percy to convince Hazel to come into the Technodome, and he isn't disappointed by her reaction. He glances over his shoulder to see her looking around the room, eyes locking on a set of mid-adjustment cell phones, and finally settling on the giant computer screen.

"What," she begins, looking startled, "is that?"

"Computer monitor," says Percy. "It's pretty new to all of us. Pretty fancy, right?"

Percy turns to her and sees her just staring at the monitor like it was choosing whether or not to kill her.

"It's huge," she says, sounding mesmerized. "Really, really huge."

"Yeah," he says, flashing back to the time he broadcasted with Annabeth from his house and Travis Stoll commented on the pimple he had under his nose, "we can see every detail with this big ol' thing."

She's still staring in awe when he turns on the screen and plugs in his mother's Skype address and clicks dial.

Hazel stumbles backward when Sally answers, a big bright smile on her face. Percy, just looking at her, feels a weight lift off of his shoulders. "Hey, Mom!" he exclaims.

"Hi, Percy," says Sally Jackson, but her gaze shifts over to Hazel. "And hello, Hazel, right?"

* * *

Hazel is stunned. The entire room is full of things whose names she might never even be able to pronounce. There are gadgets and doodads and weird things she thinks her mother might call hokum, though that particular expressions' meaning often evaded her.

But what stuns her most is the vivacious redheaded woman peering out from the screen as if she were a few feet away. And smiling at Hazel as if she were the redheaded woman's own daughter.

"Hold on, Mom, let me fix up the audio so we can hear you," says Percy, and Hazel's grateful for his fib to cover up her astonishment. As he muddles with the air under the screen, Hazel allows herself to smile up at Percy's mother.

"Hi, Mrs. Jackson," she says. "I'm –"

"Hazel, love, of course I know you!" she exclaims. "Oh, gosh, Percy's told me so much about you. He goes on and on about how you're smarter than everyone but probably Annabeth, you know." She continues in this vein for a little longer, and Hazel's glad she doesn't giggle when she's unsure how to respond anymore. She can't believe the little, lovely things that Percy told his mother about her, and it's warming her heart in an unfamiliar way to see someone else's mom praise her in this way.

"And I also heard you started high school this year!" Sally concludes. "Tell me, how has it been, darling? Are you going back there for the holidays?"

"High school's been fantastic, Mrs. Jackson," Hazel replies politely. "It's such a surprise to be learning so much so quickly. Back when I was in school, well, the amount we learned was determined by who wanted us to learn it. Now it's pretty much all balanced."

Sally sighs. "Ah, if only that could be true. Percy's struggled a bit through the years –"

"Mom!"

" – but having Annabeth in his life has been quite good for his GPA." Sally glances over at Percy, who is now beet red and hiding his hands in the corner. Sally chuckles and turns back to Hazel. "He hates it when I tease him," she says airily, "but I have to say, what's the point of having a son if you can't tease him in front of his friends, right?"

Hazel giggles, shoving Percy back when he gently bops her on the top of the head. "He's just as annoying as I'd assume an older brother would be," Hazel says, rolling her eyes.

"Good!" says Sally. "He needs a little sister to bother him. He never listens to me or Annabeth - maybe you can get him in line."

"Remember that time I called you up to introduce Hazel and tell you I'm coming home tomorrow night?" Percy asks, looking a little exasperated. "This was not intended for the two of you to bond while making fun of me."

"And yet, that's what happened," sighs Sally. "I'll see you tomorrow? Around when?"

"Annabeth's dragging me to the Library for a little while – something about a book about Dad – but we should be back around six."

Sally nods, "as long as you two are warm in your, well, bed for you, trundle in the living room for Annabeth, by nine, I'm fine with it."

Percy rolls his eyes dramatically, and Hazel fights back a laugh. She never had such an easy experience with her own mother. "We're juniors in high school," groans Percy, "not eight year olds."

"Yet somehow I question your maturity," laughs Sally. "I'll see you then, sweetie."

The call disconnects and Sally's face disappears, and Hazel finds herself staring at a screen of complicated buttons and indecipherable internet-speak.

"Want to learn how to work it?" Percy asks. It would sound patronizing from other people, but from Percy it mostly just sounds like he wants to play with the computer with her.

"Shouldn't we be going back?" Hazel asks. "I mean, it is getting close to dinner."

"Well," says Percy, a strange little smile on his face, "there is another reason I dragged you here." He digs through the pile of stuff labeled "presents" – demigods are not particularly good at being subtle – and pulls out a tiny box labeled Hazel Levesque.

"For you," Percy says, holding it out. Gingerly, Hazel takes it from him like he's offering her a delicate flower.

"Can I save it?" Hazel asks. "I don't want to open it without everyone else."

Percy just smiles and pulls out a cell phone from his pocket, dials a number, and simply says, "To the Technodome!"

"Percy, what are you doing?"

"We," says Percy, opening up the door as a bunch of their friends flood in, "are giving you your first Christmas present in a gazillion years."

"It's closer to forty," says Annabeth, "but gazillion is close enough."

They all file in and Leo claps her on the shoulder. "Open it up, Haze!" he says. "It's a Leo Valdez original." He frowns when Annabeth coughs. "It's a Chase-Valdez original."

"With a bit of Zhang flair," interrupts Frank. Hazel turns to him, stunned. He's not known for his expertise in technology. "I mean, I chose the color. It's teal."

"My favorite," she says with a small smile. "Is it delicate? Do I have to be careful?"

"It better not be too delicate, because with all the work Leo and I put into the design and manufacturing and the music/video/picture choices by everyone else, I'll punch someone if it breaks," says Annabeth with a smile. "Open it, come on!"

Hazel pulls it out of the tissue and careful blue box, and picks it up. It's teal and small and shiny, and she loves it. But she has to ask: "What is it?"

"It's a music player," says Frank, standing next to her and pressing a button to turn it on. "Think of it as a portable record player."

"That I can keep in my pocket!" she says excitedly.

"More importantly, that you can fit about three thousand songs and a couple of movies on," adds Leo. "Plus there's a GPS tracker that gives you directions and blinds you from monsters." His smirk turns cocky. "That was my idea."

"And my programming code," says Annabeth with a grin and an eye roll. "Leo and I teamed up to make the interface user friendly and great for a beginner to technology. On the front page there's an app that's a help menu – starts out with a search bar so you can basically google the information straight off."

"I didn't understand a word of what you just said," Hazel says, looking around at the big group of her friends with the greatest smile she's ever felt across her lips, "but it's the greatest present I've ever gotten, everyone."

"Oh, what the hell," says Piper, "GROUP HUG!"

"Do I have to?" asks Nico. "I'll hug Hazel, but –"

"Get in the hug, Moody Judy," says Jason, and Hazel sees Nico smile as he gets pulled into the thrall, nearly knocking over Reyna.

Hazel finds herself in the middle, surrounded by the weirdest yet greatest group of people she's known, and she thinks for a moment that the music player probably isn't the greatest thing they've given her.


	15. Christmas Eve with Kids

The tradition began the Christmas Eve after the Giant War had been won. That year, Annabeth simply had wanted to show Percy a rare book about Poseidon, something she found interesting.

She certainly hadn't intended to end up making out against a collection of Virgil's work, but that's what happened.

It's every single Christmas Eve now. They visit the library and spend time there, admiring the scenery, taking out children's holiday books to read to each other in the most empty corner of the library. Neither of them are particularly religious, being the children of pagan gods, but Christmas has always been important to both Sally Jackson and Frederick Chase for various reasons, so the traditions have been passed down to both children to collide in a fairly interesting manner.

It gets to the point where Percy and Annabeth, both thirty-three with two kids and a whole lot of presents to wrap, are considering the fact that they may not make the Christmas Eve tradition this year.

"Mommy," says seven year old Livia very sternly, "Santa told me that if you don't get me my gel pens, he's going to tell Daddy not to buy you those carchoals you wanted."

"First of all, char-coals," Annabeth pronounces carefully, "and second, since when have you been conversing with Santa? I can't at all imagine that he'd want you saying something like that to your mother on Christmas Eve."

Livia stares at her mother for a second, and then bursts into tears. "I lied!" she exclaims. "I'm sorry, Mommy, I just – my pens!" Annabeth consoles her, sighing in exasperation for a few moments, as Livia wails on and on about how terrible it would be if she didn't get her gels pens and instead got coal, and how her lie is going to ruin Christmas for everyone.

Eventually, she calms enough to say, "do I still get a gift from you, Mommy?"

"Of course," Annabeth replies," but it would do to apologize."

Livia apologizes in the way of a first grader (that is, multiple apologies rapidly and almost incoherently) until she sniffles to interrupt herself.

"I'm sorry, Mommy and Alex," she finally concludes.

"I'm glad you apologized, says Annabeth.

Livia frowns, looking horribly upset. "But I want my gel pens," she says, "and Daddy told me that gel pens are only for girls who are perfect in every way. And I pushed Alex this morning going down the stairs. I'm not perfect and I don't get my gel pens."

Annabeth holds back the generally overwhelming desire to curse at Percy and calls out, a little too loudly, "Well, I think Daddy may have exaggerated a little bit, because no one is perfect and as long as you apologized, I think Santa will understand."

Livia considers this for a moment, then nods. "I will be the best for Grammy when we go to her house tonight."

Sally always took the kids on Christmas Eve, so she could shower them with presents that night and give Percy and Annabeth time to go to the library, but it looked like present wrapping was going to take the place of the library.

"That sounds like a great choice," says Annabeth, gently bopping Livia on the nose. "Now go get your present for Grammy and we'll get you two over there." Annabeth calls to Percy – he's probably still dozing from that unexpected 3am fire call he rushed to – to wake him up, if the loud yelling didn't do it before. He always likes to be the one to drop off the kids on Christmas Eve.

"Comin'," he mumbles from their bedroom. He walks out and his hair is rumpled and he still smells a little like smoke despite his shower, but the smile on his face is all Annabeth really sees.

"Hey, hot stuff," she says quietly. He smiles at the familiar joke.

"Happy Christmas Eve," and he wraps her in his arms. They manage to sneak in a few kisses before Alex runs in and yells, "EW!" and shuffles between them to share in the hug.

"A family hug without me?!" Livia exclaims. "Well, I never!"

Annabeth has no idea where she gets some of these expressions.

There's a bit of hustle and bustle to get everyone outside and all the presents in a big bag Percy carries as they make their way to Sally's house, and Paul opens the door with a giant Christmas hat on and some cotton batting stuck to his chin.

"What do you think, kiddos?" he exclaims. "Do I look a little bit like Santa?"

Alex nods emphatically, but Livia shakes her head. "Not quite," she says, "you don't have the belly for it."

"That's quite the compliment," says Paul, and the kids shuffle in, leaving Sally to kiss Annabeth and Percy and send them on their way.

"Go have your Christmas Eve and we'll have ours," she says with a smile, "I promise to return them spoiled rotten."

* * *

When they get back to their apartment, someone is leaning against the counter, sipping a cup of coffee with a critical expression on her face, like the coffee is good but not quite good enough.

"Mother?!" Annabeth exclaims. "What are you doing here?"

"Waiting for the two of you," Athena says, "of course. I wanted to show you your gift."

Annabeth looks around for a moment, yet sees nothing. "Gift?" she asks.

"Under the tree," says Athena, and it's only a little patronizing.

Percy and Annabeth look over under the tree, where the entire floor is covered in gifts. Annabeth's sure that there are more there than were purchased.

"What – what?" is what Annabeth manages to say in her shock, and Percy can barely get out a "Huh?"

Athena settles in with a smile. "Well, despite this holiday being horribly inaccurate – summer would be better – I realized I have never given you a gift for the season. So this is it."

Percy, consistently unable to hold his tongue, exclaims, "You have present wrapping powers? That's so freaking cool!" He lights up. "Dude, are you Santa?"

"Don't call my mother dude," says Annabeth, but it looks like Athena missed it.

"Actually, the myth was based on Artemis," says Athena with a smile, "but I do believe you have been informed of this previously. My present wrapping skills are more associated with my ability to insist favors from Hermes. He wrapped, I labeled. Your gift from us."

Annabeth's heart is full to bursting, for the first time getting a gift like this from her mother, for Christmas. Her children have gotten some from Athena – an owl pendant for Liv, an early writer's journal for Alex – but nothing as dramatic or Christmas based as this. "T-thank you, Mother. Thank you so much."

"Go to your library, Annabeth," says Athena kindly. "Your gifts are wrapped and your holiday relaxation can begin." With an uncharacteristic kiss to Annabeth's forehead, Athena shuffles the pair of them out of the house in their winter gear, and they head over to the library.

"So," says Percy, a little mischievous smile forming across his face as the doors open. "Are we going to do it in the architectural history section again?" He winks garishly, and Annabeth knows that his yearly stupid joke is about to hit her. "Ready to see some real Greek architecture? In my pants?"

"Show me that Dorian pillar of yours," says Annabeth, laughing hysterically before the fourth word was out of her mouth. He takes her hand and the two of them dash up to their place in the library, and, like always, it's the best way to end their Christmas Eve.


	16. Sister

There's a knock on the door of the biggest entertainment hall in New Rome, which is weird, because everyone Reyna knows is in that entertainment hall.

"I'll get it," she says to no one in particular, because her other praetors are currently stuck in the middle of a fairly disastrous dance battle with Annabeth and Piper. Piper's winning.

For the briefest of seconds as she opens the door, she's convinced she's staring in a mirror.

And then she blinks, and realizes just how much she's grown in the years as she recognizes her sister in front of her.

"Reyna," says Hylla, a smile breaking through her stoic demeanor. "It's good to see you."

Something chokes Reyna up so her words get caught in her tongue, and she can only smile at her sister. The first thing she is able to do is ask, "How did you get in through the boundaries?"

Hylla shrugs. "I think your guard friend thought I was you. He let me in without a bit of a fight."

Reyna tries to process this – Hylla, at her home, in her town, on New Year's Eve, four years after she'd seen her last at the final battle of the Second Giant War.

Their last meeting had been covered in blood and fear and relief and tears, a breathless hug and goodbye as Hylla's troops went back to their heartland to heal their wounded.

Reyna had expected to never see her again, yet here she is, in front of her, the face she wears so near to the one Reyna sees in her reflection daily. Age shows slightly in the laugh lines by her eyes, and this recognition that her sister laughs, feels joy, enough to leave a mark on her skin, shakes Reyna from her stupor.

"Come," says Reyna formally, "let's take a walk. It's impossible to talk over Leo's ridiculous music choices in there."

They walk in silence for a few minutes, the strange moonlight hovering above them reflecting off of Hylla's skin and hair like a ribbon flooding toward the ground. Reyna feels oddly casual in her black jeans and top she borrowed ("STOLE. The shirt she stole from me!" "Oh, calm down, Piper, you're wearing my bra." "That may or may not be true.") from Piper. Hylla is dressed as any queen in a fairy tale, yet differently from what Reyna saw the last time her sister was with her. She, today, is wearing a silver-grey dress that floods to her knees, beneath it dark leggings and black boots that lace up the front of her calves. Reyna's sneakers make ugly marks in the muddy ground next to Hylla's graceful steps.

"You've grown so much," says Hylla, and Reyna smiles.

"That's what they tell me," she says with a little smile. "My friend Annabeth's mad – I'm officially taller than her now. For a long time we were the same height."

"I got the same growth spurt toward the end of my teens, too," Hylla replies, and suddenly she stops. What she says next sounds chased out, like the words have been holed up for ages. "I'm sorry I haven't been here for you, Reyna. I am so, so sorry."

Reyna nearly stumbles in the soft ground trying to stop. "What do you mean?" Reyna asks. "You have been here when we needed you, and –"

"No," Hylla says, "I have been here when your camp, when your world needed my armies. My leadership." Reyna looks into her eyes and sees genuine regret there. "I have not been there when you needed me as your sister."

"That's okay," says Reyna, shrugging her shoulders. "You – other things happened." She suddenly feels eleven years old again, like that day that she realized that, eventually, Hylla would grow up and they would no longer be together. She's grown up in the time that has passed since then, but that does not change the fact that the years have made her miss her sister even more.

"Other things may have happened, but I should have visited. I just – I missed you so much it hurt, but I didn't want to risk making things worse. We fought for days on those pirate ships and kept each other safe for so long that, well, eventually…" Her sentence trails and her eyes drift shut. "I began to realize I wanted time to take on my own. It sounds awful, but I wanted to be responsible for only me for a while. And that was wrong. You were just a child, so young, I –"

"Hylla," Reyna interrupts. "You aren't my mom, or my dad, or my guardian. You're my sister. You didn't abandon me when I needed you. You've always been there."

"But I haven't –"

"You have," Reyna says firmly. "I was young, yes, when we went our separate ways, but I think perhaps I needed time on my own as well."

"Do you have time for me now?" Hylla asks, and right now she's the one who looks like the younger sister. Reyna's startled that Hylla is asking her this, as if Reyna could ever say no to having time for her older sister, her Lils, her best friend.

"I always will, Lils," and with the reintroduction of the childhood nickname, tears well in Hylla's eyes.

"I have missed you," says Hylla, and she throws her arms around Reyna in the bright moonbeam light, the moment shrouded in the glow of New Year's Eve, of new beginnings, of a new era. Of a new year.

Minutes pass before they break apart, both wiping tears from their eyes. "Come on," says Reyna, "enough of this teary business. We have a party to go to and I have a dance competition to win."

"Dance competition?" Hylla asks. "You Romans have dance competitions?"

Reyna frowns. "Actually, it was the idea of the Greeks."

"Silly Greeks," says Hylla, but there is no malice behind the statement. "Let's go show those olives that the daughters of Bellona aren't just victors on the battle field."


	17. Have Yourself a Ukulele Christmas

_A/N: My mom got me a ukulele for Christmas inexplicably. So blame her for this chapter._

* * *

Leo's Secret Santa was going to be killed by the entire camp – when they found the Santa, that is.

Leo's gifts, leading up until that fateful day they could all get together to exchange the final presents, went from weird to weirder. First, a cheap whistle. Then, a kazoo. Then a slide whistle. Finally, on Christmas Day, he had received a ukulele.

Someone gave Leo Valdez a freaking ukulele.

For the first few days, they suffered through it. Piper, in particular, let Leo blare "My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean" at her for a full fifteen painful minutes, mainly because Leo had been her Secret Santa and she figured he'd never fix the mini music player he made her if it broke if she pissed him off too much.

"Who did it," grumbles Annabeth on the fourth day. Leo's been parading around camp with the ukulele and, bizarrely, a pair of 2010 sunglasses that no one's quite sure where they came from. "Who gave him those glasses? I need to know who to hit right now."

"How about Leo?" groans Jason. "Gods, it's like literal saws in my ears."

"Worse," says Percy, "I think I can feel my teeth being shaved off whenever he hits that high note when playing Everytime We Touch."

For a while they talk, complaining, until, suddenly, Piper realizes that Nico's being strangely silent. "Di Angelo," she says, staring him down. "Why aren't you complaining?"

"Wasn't in Secret Santa and Leo knows to stay away from me," Nico says with a shrug, but he still doesn't meet anyone's eye.

"Not true!" Annabeth exclaims. "I organized all the names! You were in that stupid baseball hat of names, Nico, don't lie to us. Did you give him the ukulele?" She slams her hands down on the table in front of Nico. "Did you?!"

"Getting to the scary place again, Annabeth," says Percy with an eye roll.

"That ukulele has driven me to and dropped me off in the scary place!" snaps Annabeth. "And it looks like Nico gave it the freaking keys. Tell me, Hell Boy!"

"Hey!" exclaims Jason. "No name calling!"

"Shut it, Butterfly Boy," says Piper. "Come on Nico, tell us. Who did you have for Secret Santa? If it wasn't Leo just tell us."

Nico, suddenly, lets a smile overtake his face. "Leo," he says, "and gods, this has been the most fun I've had in years. Let's do it again sometime!" He bolts out of his chair and slides out the door before anyone can catch him, laughing the whole way.

"Okay," says Percy, "we divide into groups. One group of us get Leo and the other one gets Nico."

"And what are we going to do when we get them?" asks Jason.

But Annabeth's already right with Percy. "We'll lock Leo and Nico in the Hades cabin and make Nico taste his own medicine."

"Or hear it," says Piper. "Jason and I will take on Uke-y McPukey. You two have Hell Boy?"

Annabeth and Percy exchange a look. "Shadow kid may be able to run," says Annabeth. "But he can't hide for too long. We'll get him."

Within minutes they've chased Nico into a sunny spot without any shadows anywhere around them, Percy trapping him with the water on the beach and Annabeth waiting for him in the invisibility cap.

"Gotcha," says Annabeth, hauling Nico over her shoulder. "Come with us, buddy boy, your ears are going to get kicked in the nads."

"Ears don't have nads," says Nico, but he's shut up abruptly when Percy flicks his ear.

Across camp, Piper tackles Leo to the ground while Jason flies the ukulele out of the way.

Piper frog marches Leo over to Nico's cabin, and the two groups meet at the same time.

"I hate all of you," says Nico, with no real bite to it. "No, really, I do."

"You do not," says Annabeth, waving her hand. "Leo, go play for him. He's your Secret Santa. Show him what his gift has become."

"But what if I – "

Before Leo can finish his sentence, Jason's pushed him into the cabin, Nico close behind, shoved by Annabeth.

Ten minutes later, when they realize that Nico has a ukulele of his own and the same amount of skill as Leo, and that they can hear it out the window, they realize them have made a horrible mistake.

"D'ya think Nico planned all this?" asks Jason, sounding concerned.

"Wouldn't put it past him," Annabeth replies with a shrug.

"Think they planned it together?"

"Probably," says Piper.

From inside the cabin, the ukulele noises stop and laughter floods through the doors.

"I liked them better when they couldn't stand each other," says Jason. "Stupid Secret Santa and holiday cheer."


	18. Liam

"You're WHAT?!" Percy exclaims.

"I'm pregnant! A little sister or brother," says Sally kindly. "You're going to be a big brother!"

"But why?!"

Annabeth jabs him in the ribs with her elbow. "You don't ask your mother why you're getting a new sibling, you jerk," she snaps quietly.

"No, it's okay," laughs Paul. "I get it. I was the only for a while too. Gets under your skin when a new one comes along."

"Nothing is under my skin," says Percy. "I'm just, I mean, how?!"

He gets identical eye rolls from his mother and girlfriend and hysterical laughter from his step father.

"Shut up," he grumbles, his face feeling bright red. "Oh my gods, shut up right now."

"How?!" chortles Paul. "Percy, man, you're a senior in high school. My high school. I'm not giving you any explanations."

"That's not what I meant!" Percy exclaims, but even he can't blame the blush on his cheeks on the Christmas lights shining from the tree. "This is the weirdest Christmas Eve ever."

"When did you find out?" Annabeth asks. Percy's relieved – all the questions he wants to ask are a little bit stuck in his head and she, like always, has his back while he babbles inappropriately. Some things never change.

"A little while ago," Sally replies. "But we didn't want to say anything until we were sure it could happen. I'm five months along, so it seems we should be alright now though I am older, so the pregnancy might be high risk toward the end."

Percy feels a wave of fear cover him as he thinks about what the hell "high risk pregnancy" means. He knows about babies and shit – he, unfortunately, didn't miss the semester where he had to take Health – but he's got no idea about what high risk pregnancy was.

His response to his mother is, "But baby?"

"I'll take him for a walk to the library," says Annabeth, pulling on Percy's arm. "We'll do that first before dinner so he doesn't explode."

He lets Annabeth pull him out the door, and waits until they're on the sidewalk and on their way before he says it.

But he can't quite get the words out. Instead, he just turns to her, sure he looks befuddled, and says, "Baby?"

Annabeth snorts. "Your mom isn't old, Percy. She only had you at eighteen, right?"

Percy shrugs. "Yeah. So?"

"So she's having a second one when a lot of people have their first. You're not going to freak out about no longer being an only on either side of the parents, are you?"

He shrugs. "Maybe I will."

Annabeth rolls her eyes. "You, Percy, are twelve."

"I'm also apparently going to be an older brother."

* * *

The next Christmas Eve, his little brother Liam is camped out on Percy's lap, almost entirely asleep. Percy's not far from napland either.

In what could either be two minutes or two hours, he feels someone's lips press against his temple.

"Percy," the voice singsongs, "it's time to get up, unless you want to skip the library this year."

His eyes slowly flutter open. Annabeth has a hand on Liam's fuzzy red head, brushing his soft hair back. "Morning, sleepy face," she says with a smile.

He slowly sits up from where he had been lying on the couch, careful to keep the eight month old munchkin from being jostled. He was a hellion today – the longer he sleeps, the better.

"Morning," Percy says. He returns Annabeth's smile. "Babysitting is hard."

"I guessed," she giggles. "You were out cold for ages. Your mom and I have been chatting in the kitchen for the past three hours."

"Three hours?!" Percy exclaims, and Liam squirms on his chest, making quiet muttering sounds. Without a second thought, Percy lets Liam suck on his finger and the baby quiets in seconds. "Shoot," mutters Percy. "Didn't mean to wake him up."

"He looks content now," says Annabeth. Then her eyes light up. Percy waits for her to explain what that look means. "What do you think of shifting our library plans and bringing Liam with?"

"You think it'll work?" Percy asks, shifting enough to stand with Liam securely resting against his shoulder. "You think he'll be quiet enough?"

Annabeth shrugs. "Your mom needs a nap and we were going to go to the library anyway. Why not give your mom some Christmas time alone with Paul?"

Liam lifts his head and looks right at Annabeth until he reaches his little arms out for her.

"I think your brother likes my idea," Annabeth chuckles as she takes him in her arms. "What do you say, Little Man? Wanna go play with books?"

Liam giggles and smiles.

"I think that's a yes," says Percy. "Come on. Let's go get our book on." As Annabeth turns away, Percy whispers in his brother's ear, "I know you two aren't related, but inherit her brains!"

Annabeth just chuckles.


End file.
